Can I skip the apple a day and take Selenium instead?

December 2, 2006 9:28 PM

I'm not looking for quack cures. I know there are no easy fixes. I hate to waste money. But I'd like to find a trusted website or source for recommending vitamins and supplements.

Even if I could wade through all the information today to decide how much calcium, folic acid and fish oil I should take, there would probably be new guidelines within a few months. Where can I go to online that would give me the rundown of what someone my age, with my diseases, should take?

I live in a rural area, so seeing a nutrionist is not very likely.

posted by saffry to health & fitness (8 answers total)

Well, how about Weil.
posted by artdrectr at 10:04 PM on December 2, 2006

Bill Sardi's Knowledge of Health. He also has a book specifically about vitamins. It goes into quite a bit of detail. Sardi isn't a doctor, but a health journalist that reads all the studies and keeps track of what does what. He makes recommendations based on the studies. He also has a blog. I'm not associated with him, but read a couple of his books and followed some of his recommendations and am the better for it.
posted by Katravax at 10:16 PM on December 2, 2006

The World's Healthiest Foods website might be helpful. They focus more on whole foods, but if you need to look up the nutritional and holistics benifits of, say, basil, they provide loads of information and recipes.
posted by maryh at 10:45 PM on December 2, 2006

Dr. Weil is reputable, as artdrectr mentioned.

Also, remember that without getting lots of water and a good balance of food, vitamins won't help you much. Be careful will choosing supplements at random, especially more specialized ones such as flax seed oil or "x" extracts as they may sound really cool but your particular chemistry may not require them, or maybe even be overly taxed by their intake.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:22 PM on December 2, 2006

will = of
posted by Burhanistan at 11:24 PM on December 2, 2006

This will appear off the wall but check it out.

The Immortality Institute has a large collection of forums and the one devoted to supplements and vitamins is active with a number of knowledgeable posters. Yes, the Immortality Institute is "for infinite lifespans". No, I don't think that's particularly likely and it's not an interest of mine. The supplements and vitamins forum has a number of helpful and scientifically literate regulars. Many of the posters when asked to defend their beliefs are able to point to studies published in journals. No one there is looking to push cyronics.

As far as suppliers go, I think relentlessimprovement.com (a sponsor at the Immortality Institute forums) has quality goods and an interesting blog but they aren't cheap.

For specific health conditions I would recommend getting that information from a mailing list or forums dedicated to that particular condition.

A good baseline supplementation program accordig to the above, not that you asked me, and I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist, would be something like a high quality multi-vitamin, B-12 as methylcobalamin, Co Q-10, and 2 grams of High-EPA fish oil.
posted by BigSky at 12:10 AM on December 3, 2006

Please also realize: if you don't need the vitamins, you will pee them out. Americans produce the most expensive urine in the world.
posted by gramcracker at 12:20 AM on December 3, 2006

Yes, Dr. Weil's Vitamin Advisor was exactly what I was looking for. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the number of snake oil cures I hear about makes it hard to determine the real from the fake.
posted by saffry at 10:35 AM on December 3, 2006